By NOLAN HUGHES
PBA Communications
JONESBORO, Ark. — Brad Miller, Crystal Elliott and Paul Fleming each led their division during Thursday’s opening round of PBA/PBA50/PWBA Jonesboro Trios qualifying.
This tournament marks the first time all three professional bowling tours have come together in a single event. A national title on each respective tour is at stake.
On Friday, each of the three divisions will bowl a second five-game qualifying round on the 40-foot Monacelli oil pattern at Hijinx Entertainment Center in Jonesboro, Ark.
The top 16 players in each division after 10 games will advance to match play.
Trios teams will be formed based on qualifying seed — the top qualifier in the PBA, PBA50 and PWBA divisions will form Team 1, and so on — and pinfall will be dropped.
All games of round-robin match play and the stepladder finals, each using the baker trios format, will take place Saturday, Aug. 3.
Qualifying, match play and the stepladder finals will be livestreamed on BowlTV.
PBA50 Division — Standings
Paul Fleming led the opening round of qualifying and staved off the second-round efforts of the red-hot Mika Koivuniemi, who has made five consecutive PBA50 Tour stepladder finals.
Fleming finished with a 10-game total pinfall of 2,193 (+193) to lead the PBA50 division into match play.
After Koivuniemi, Brad Angelo, Tom Hess and Mario Quintero round out the top five. Quintero did not make his PBA50 Tour debut until the Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship in mid-July, the the Mexican native has made a furious charge to the top of the PBA50 Rookie of the Year race.
Quintero made match play in all four PBA50 World Series of Bowling II events, including his PBA50 World Championship major victory. Despite a seven-event difference, he trails Randy Weiss by just 340 points on the season.
Dan Knowlton, John Janawicz, Dino Castillo, Tom Adcock, Chris Barnes, Mitch Beasley, Brian Link, Jason Couch, Parker Bohn III and David Taylor each advanced to match play.
Jon Rakoski (-20) earned the final berth inside the cut.
“After shooting 177 the last game, I thought I was done. I actually brought my balls to the car,” Rakoski said.
Fortunately for the Floridian, the cut plummeted from +6 to -20 during the last game. Rakoski, who said he loves the baker format, now essentially enters match play tied for first place with pinfall resetting.
Billy Froberg, who won the Senior Classic division of the PBA LBC National Championships, finished three pins behind Rakoski.
PWBA Division — Standings
In the final game of PWBA division qualifying, former PWBA Rookie of the Year Stephanie Zavala usurped current Rookie of the Year front-runner Crystal Elliott for the top seed.
Zavala finished with a 10-game total pinfall of 2,255 (+255). She will be paired with Fleming and the PBA division leader.
“I knew I put myself in a pretty good position yesterday, so today was all about getting arm swing loose, building confidence and getting ready for the mayhem that’s coming,” Zavala said. “I thought if I pair myself up with the leaders in every division, then that means we all saw the lanes pretty well. We’re just looking to find a little bit of chemistry right off the bat and be able to communicate as best we can.”
“My Luci doubles partner (Sean Rash) is just trying to hang on, so I think that’s out,” Zavala said when asked about which PBA player she hopes to be teamed up with. “There’s so many guys up there that I would potentially love to be with. You’ve got EJ Tackett and Kyle Troup in the field, why wouldn’t you want to match up with any of those guys?”
Elliott, the Round 1 leader, sits in second place followed by Jordan Richard, Breanna Clemmer and Verity Crawley rounding out the top five.
Danielle McEwan, Diana Zavjalova, Ashly Galante, Julia Bond, Josie Barnes, Sydney Brummett, Laruen Russo, Alexis Runk and Erin McCarthy also advanced to match play.
Bryanna Coté, the 2021 PWBA Player of the Year, earned the final berth in match play at -74, just two pins ahead of Lauren Tomaszewski.
PBA Division — Standings
Zavala got her wish as EJ Tackett ended qualifying with the front-10 and 289 to surge to the top seed. Tackett finished with a pinfall of 2,328 (+328).
Brad Miller qualified second, followed by Nick Pate, François Lavoie and Kyle Troup to round out the top five.
Brian Robinson, Ryan Barnes, Nathan Bohr, AJ Johnson, Brandon Flora, Kyle Sherman, Matt Russo, Stu Williams, Justin Knowles, Michael Davidson and Sean Rash also advanced to match play.
Rash (+129) qualified in 16th, finishing eight pins ahead of DJ Archer.
TEAMS NOW SET
Pinfall will be dropped before each team bowls 16 games of round-robin match play using the baker trios format Saturday.
One player will bowl the first, fourth, seventh and 10th frames; a second will bowl the second, fifth and eighth; and the third will bowl the third, sixth and ninth frames.
All teams will rotate their lineup for the first 15 games, allowing each member to bowl five games from each position.
Teams will set their own lineup for games in the position round and stepladder finals.
Match play and the stepladder finals will be livestreamed on BowlTV.
Players are listed in the following order for each team: PBA, PBA50 and PWBA
Team 1: EJ Tackett, Paul Fleming and Stephanie Zavala
Team 2: Brad Miller, Mika Koivuniemi and Crystal Elliott
Team 3: Nick Pate, Brad Angelo and Jordan Richard
Team 4: François Lavoie, Tom Hess and Breanna Clemmer
Team 5: Kyle Troup, Mario Quintero and Verity Crawley
Team 6: Brian Robinson, Dan Knowlton and Danielle McEwan
Team 7: Ryan Barnes, John Janawicz and Diana Zavjalova
Team 8: Nathan Bohr, Dino Castillo and Dasha Kovalova
Team 9: AJ Johnson, Tom Adcock and Ashly Galante
Team 10: Brandon Flora, Chris Barnes and Julia Bond
Team 11: Kyle Sherman, Mitch Beasley and Josie Barnes
Team 12: Matt Russo, Brian Link and Sydney Brummett
Team 13: Stu Williams, Jason Couch and Lauren Russo
Team 14: Justin Knowles, Parker Bohn III and Alexis Runk
Team 15: Michael Davidson, David Taylor and Erin McCarthy
Team 16: Sean Rash, Jon Rakoski and Bryanna Coté
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
All times listed in Eastern
Saturday, Aug. 3
9 a.m. — Trios Match Play Round 1 (eight baker games)
3 p.m. — Trios Match Play Round 2 (eight baker games)
Top five teams advance to stepladder finals
8 p.m. — Stepladder finals (baker games)
More information on the PBA/PBA50/PWBA Jonesboro Trios is available here.